Episode 207: “Confident Pluralism” with John Inazu

No one seems to agree on anything anymore in America. Law professor and author John Inazu joins Phil and Skye to talk about living Christianly in a pluralistic society, and his new book, “Confident Pluralism.”

6 Comments

DAN AND sUSIE MILLER
on June 29, 2016 at 10:40 pm

Hello Phil, SKye & Christian,

My hubby and I have been listening for over a year and Love being challenged out of our ‘evangelical box’ and stretched to see more of the world through CHRIST’s viewpoint and loving people no matter what. We do have a question though. Several times on the podcasts you have referenced Mormans and it almost seems you do equated them with being CHRIST followers. We would like to know how you come to the conclusion or if we are hearing you wrong. We have lived around the LDS religion for most of our lives. We know what their doctrinal beliefs are and would classify them as a cult rather than different Christian view. Could you please mention this or send us an email to millco2@yahoo.com.

Thanks,
Dan & Susie
Miller

PS currently reading Skye’s The Voting Booth and really enjoying it! Ugh but who to vote for in this reality….. :/

Hi guys! Glad you’re enjoying the show. Neither Skye nor I would consider the LDS church within the boundaries of orthodox Christianity, by a long shot. It’s a different faith. Whenever we’ve mentioned the LDS church on the podcast though, I don’t think it’s been in the context of approving or disapproving their doctrine, at least as far as I remember.

Forgive me if I’m missing some subtle nuance, but there seemed to be a significant contrast between two parts of your conversation in this episode – the discussion of the Californian anti-discrimination case was filled with the very qualities that where under criticism in the subsequent discussion of Inazu’s article. Perhaps this juxtaposition was entirely intentional, and I’m being Mr Obvious, but on second listening the ‘California’ conversation did little to model the ‘thriving’ aspired to later in the episode… interested in any further thoughts.

I think the question in the first part is about the ability of religious groups to freely associate and maintain their religious character. Can a Mormon college require faculty to ascribe to a Mormon statement of faith, for example. Can a Jewish campus group require a Jewish statement of faith for group leadership. Historically this sort of free association was an important American value. The second part of conversation dealt with how individual Christians live in a highly pluralistic society – what attitudes do we take toward the non-Christian world around us. So the issues are fairly distinct, I think. Hope that helps.